Token:Gold arcade token

The Strong National Museum of Play

Tokens are the currency of the arcade. Generally about the size of a quarter, and often uniquely branded with each individual location's name and logo, these coins are purchased with actual currency, and have value only within an arcade setting. The earliest tokens appeared in the 1880s and were dispensed from electro-mechanical games as prizes. This continued into the early 1900s with amusement games, such as skee-ball, and pinball machines. These tokens could then be fed back into the games to continue play. With the advent of video arcade games in the 1970s and 1980s, gamers across the world were using thousands of tokens in arcades, pizza parlors, and amusement parks. Many modern arcades now eschew physical tokens in favor of swipe cards, onto which gamers can continuously add points for play. This collection of tokens represents a small segment of arcade token history.